More Nikon V1 ISO1600 samples

I’m very pleased with the high ISO performance of the comparatively tiny 1″ sensor. IMO ISO1600 is perfectly usable. ISO3200 on the other hand is more situational. Sometimes it’s all good, other times it’s noisy as hell. I guess you have to be much more precise with exposure when using ISO3200. However, that is nothing new to me. High sensitivity film behaved the same way. The higher you go, less room for error you have.

2 Comments

I purchased the V1 because of the low price, fully expecting to dislike it. I found instead that I very much like the grain look with 1600 and also with 3200. I run the images through a film emulation software, I prefer DxO Film Pack. Their TriX is closer than any other I’ve tried when coupled with the V1 images. If I control exposure properly their Kodachrome (64) emulation is quite good also. In my opinion altogether too much effort and money is spent trying to eliminate any hint of noise or grain from images. Also, leaving the V1 set at 1600 or 3200 is quite liberating…it’s a relaxing way to shoot.

“In my opinion altogether too much effort and money is spent trying to eliminate any hint of noise or grain from images.”

I couldn’t agree more! I reduce the standard amount of noise reduction in Lightroom all the time. Instead of the default 25 NR and sharpening, I mostly use 10 for USM and 15 for chroma NR. I don’t do any luminance NR. PPed this way, I like the V1 photos the best. They remind me somewhat of film.

“Also, leaving the V1 set at 1600 or 3200 is quite liberating…it’s a relaxing way to shoot.”

Well, even in my analogue days, I preferred low sensitivity film over more sensitive ones. I only liked grain in BW. My favourite films were the Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Elite Chrome 100, Fuji Reala 100 and sometimes Superia 800. All beautiful in their own way. When shooting BW I used almost any film I could get my hands on. I didn’t really see much of a difference if developed and scanned/enlarged right. I constantly used to push and pull to achieve the look I wanted. Some of the films I liked because of price were: Agfa 100 and 400, Fomapan 100, 200 and 400, HP5+ for pushing up to 1600, TriX 400 isn’t bad either. Occasionally I would also use Tmax 3200, but to my eyes it looked kinda “flat”, regardless of how I developed it.